Valve operator and position indicator



Nov. 8, 1960 H. c. scl-iwENK I "2,

vALvg' OPERATOR AND POSITION INDICATOR v 1 2 Sheets-Shut 1.

Original Filed March 14, 1957 NOV. 8, 1960 c, sc w 2,959,149

VALVE OPERATOR AND POSITION INDICATOR Original Filed March 14, 1957 2Sheets-Sheet 2 9 I 'lj i? 68 United States Patent 2,959,149 v vEOPERATOR D Po mo NDICATQR Henry C. Schwenk, Glenview, Ill., assignor toHenry Pratt Company, a corporation of Illinois Originalapplication Mar.14, 195 7, Ser. No. 645 ,94. Divided and this application Mar. 2, 1959,SerLNo. 796,499

3 Claims. (Cl. 116-125) This invention relates to a valve operator andposition indicator and more particularly to such a 'unit which may beplaced upon the end of an existingvalve operating shaft, particularlywhere the "valve itself is inaccessible.

This application is a division of my copending application Serial No.645,943, filed March 14, 1957.

In many water work systems, there are valves in lines which areinaccessible because of being buried or'in other locations out of reachof workmen. Valves in distribution lines are generally below groundandan operating shaft for the valve is carried up t'o'athe ground levelinside a pipe housing. A cover-on the housing may be removed to exposethe shaft forthe reception of a key by which the shaft may be turnedand'the valve thusly opened or closed. In the past, workmen havegenerally made an assumption as to whether a particular inaccessiblevalve was opened or closed. The valve operating shaft was turnedmanually and the workmen were able to feel whether or not they hadturned the shaft sufiiciently to open or close the valve asthe casemight'be. The resistance to turning varied at the extreme positions ofthe valve in relation to the resistanceto turning intermediate thepositions. Such procedure resulted in damage to some valves when theassumption arrived at was wrong, but has been generally followed in theabsence of a more satisfactory operating procedure.

The introduction and more extensive use of butterfly valves inwaterworks systems has complicated the problem since such valves turnquite easily and have very little of the feel at the extreme positionsof the valve. Workman, accustomed to opening and closing other kinds ofvalves, have caused damage to butterfly valves because of the absence ofthis feel which told them when the valve had reached its desiredposition.

The primary object of this invention is to provide a new and improvedcombination valve operator and position indicator.

Another object is to provide an indicator of a valve position which maybe installed on the accessible portion of a valve operating shaft.

Another object is to provide a valve operator and position indicatorwhich may be mounted in an accessible position so that the removal ofits cover may expose both the valve operating shaft and an indicatordriven therefrom.

A further object is to provide such an indicator for valve positionerswhich can be turned through less than 360 by a valve operating shaftwhich may be required to make many turns to move the valve between thisextreme position.

A further object is to provide a valve operator and position indicatorwhich is simply and economically constructed.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be understoodfrom the following description of "ice embodiments of the inventionillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure l is afragmentary broken elevational view of a buried valve having theinvention mounted thereon;

Figure 2 is a reduced plan view of the unit with its cover removed; "1Figure 3 is a broken elevational view in section of a preferred form ofthe combined operator andposition indicator device; Figure 4 is asectional view through the device taken substantially along line 4-4 inFigure 3; L 1

Figure 5 is a sectional view through, he device shown in Figure 3 takensubstantially along line 5---5 in Figure 3. L r

The problem of indicating the position of a valve which is buried andthus inaccessible may be illustrated with reference to Figure 1. A pipeline 10,below the ground level G has a butterfly-type valve 11 mountedtherein and having a shaft 12 upon which is mounted? gear box 13 inorder to turn the shaft through approx-1- mately degrees to open orclose the valve. The valve is opened or closed by turning the gears inthe gear box. For this purpose, an operating shaft extension14 extendsupwardly from the gear box within an iron pipe housing 15 to a locationgenerally near the groundsurface. The upper-end of'the shaftisprovided:with:,a standard squared nut 16 for the reception ofasockettype ofkey. e

The position indicator and operator 17 of this invention is mountedontop of the pipe housing 15 and connected'with the valve opera-tingshaft extension 14. With the use of the present position indicator,aworkman does not have to make any assumptions as to-the position of theinaccessible valve. Ordinarily, theunit of this invention is providedwith a coverwhich, when removed, will exposethe nut upon which the. keymay be placed and alsowill expose the positiontindicatonk The unititself has a circular housing58 with an upper ledge 19 for receiving acover. When the cover is removed, the interior of the unit has anappearance as illustrated in Figure 2. A standard water works square nut20 for turning the valve is fully exposed for the reception of a key. Anindicating disk 59 has marked on there a legend 22 such as the letter Oand a second legend 23 such as the letter C which indicate the positionof the valve relative to a mark or boss 24 formed on the housing. Thedisk 59 is caused to move arcuately about the center shaft portion 25 inthe unit as the valve is opened or closed. It is preferred that the diskmove about 270 degrees even though the shaft may have to turn fromseventeen turns upwardly to open and close the valve. The number ofturns of shaft 14, of course, depends upon the gear ratio employed inthe box 13.

The inner end of the shaft portion 25 in the unit may be provided with asocket 26 to fit over the square nut 16 onthe top of the valve operatingshaft 14. The short shaft portion 25 is a part of the unit permittingthe unit to be manufactured, as such, and merely attached to the usualvalve shaft extension. A lower flange or other suitable mountingstructure on the housing may be provided for fitting the housing ontothe bell 28 of the housing 15. Other suitable connections may be made tomate with the design of the pipe housing 15 used in any particularinstallations.

In order that the disk move about the shaft less than one turn for manyturns of the shaft itself, a transmission mechanism is mounted about theshaft to effect such movement. The mechanism includes the thin, flatindicating disk 59 carried by a circular center gear 60 both of whichare idly mounted about shaft 25. The center gear is driven by a circularspur gear 61 in adjacent meshing position. The spur gear is mounted on avertical stub shaft 63 andis advanced step-by-step in a rotary path by acircular ratchet wheel 62. The ratchet 'wheel is keyed to the saidstub'shaft'in a lower-vertical position. The ratchet wheel is, in turn,advanced by a pawl 64 secured to the shaft 25 in position to engage onetooth of the ratchet Wheel upon each revolution. A spring 65 yieldinglyurges an arm 66 in a direction to engage its roller 67 against the teethof the ratchet to insure step-by-step advancement. The number of teethin the ratchet may be chosen to obtain the desired movement of theindicating disk relative tothe number of turns of the shaft 25 requiredto open and close the valve. Also, the gears 60 and 61 may be changed tovary the ratio of disk movement to shaft movement. The entiretransmission may be mounted between spaced plates 68 and 69 andenclosed, if desired. A lower collar 70 may be used to hold the unit onthe shaft 25.

The above described unit permits the position indicator to be mounted inthe location of the valve operating shaft where a workman will be sureto observe and notice the indicator. The use of the unit insures that avalve position is a known factor and no longer subject to conjecture.Damage to valve due to excessive turning of the operating shaft may thusbe avoided.

The foregoing detailed description has been given for clearness ofunderstanding only and no unnecessary limitations should be understoodtherefrom, for some modifications will be obvious to those skilled inthe art.

I claim:

'1. A covered, unitary, self-contained valve operator and positionindicator unit adapted for attachment to wheel drivingly connected tosaid indicating disk and a driving key connected to said shaft inposition to engage said wheel and advance the same one step for eachrevolution of said shaft, said ratchet wheel and key turning theindicating disk proportionally to the turning of the shaft and through aposition indicating are less than a full turn about the shaft; and aframe supporting said ratchet wheel for pivotal movement beside saidshaft, said frame surrounding and being carried by said shaft.

2. A valve covered, unitary, self-contained operator and positionindicator unit for attachment to the end of an underground rotary valveoperating shaft, comprising: a housing having a removable upper cover; acentral shaft portion in the housing having means for 'con nection tosaid'valve operating shaft and a nut exposed upon removal of said coverfor receiving a key permitting turning of the operating shaft to openand close the valve; an indicator member in said housing mounted forrotation about the shaft portion and movable arcuately relative to thehousing; a transmission mechanism connecting the shaft and indicatormember, said transmission having a ratchet wheel in the housing and adriving pawl on the shaft arranged to advance the Wheel one step witheach complete turn of the shaft, said ratchet wheel being drivinglyconnected with said indicator member to rotate the same through lessthan one complete revolution between open and closed positions of saidvalve.

3. A unit as specified in claim 2 wherein the ratchet Wheel is mountedon a stub shaft rotatable in a frame secured against movement relativeto said housing and said stub shaft is connected by gears to turn theindicator member relative to said housing.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS467,796 Ferrell Jan. 26, 1892 1,896,850 Perry Feb. 7, 1933 2,767,681Pontius Oct. 23, 1956

